Tag Archives: Bali

While vacationing in Bali, Professor Joan Melnick, Interior Design ’61, spent a day in a bamboo wonderland. She was inspired to visit after watching a Ted Talk.

Almost everything in the Green School and adjacent Green Village are made out of bamboo. Because bamboo takes just four years to mature, harvesting it doesn’t cause deforestation. The school’s founder, John Hardy, helped set up bamboo farms where the village now gets its wood.

Swiss Family Robinson goes green: The Green Village in Bali. All photos courtesy of the Green Village and Ibuku.

The school offers its mostly international students a natural, holistic education. Instead of spending the whole day at a desk, students explore their surroundings and help create their own experiential curricula.

The Green Village, created by Hardy’s daughter Elora, allows for a community of residents by the school.

A villa at night.

The architecture is marvelous. All the structures fit together without nails, and the entire village is powered by a nearby river. “The light and shapes are beautifully undulated,” Melnick says.

A center column of bamboo with a concrete base provides strength for the multilevel structures.

The foundation for the buildings starts with a column of bamboo.

Instead of blueprints, the architects create 3D models.

A “blueprint” for a bamboo villa.

“The Balinese are considered incredible craftsmen,” Melnick says. “That’s something we’ve lost in Western culture.”

Working on a bamboo roof. Building is mostly done by hand.

As of now, three homes have been built. Visitors can rent them short-term or long-term. The interiors are, of course, stunning.

That’s some serious cross-ventilation.

It’s paradise. And if we see more sustainable developments like this, maybe this paradise will last for future generations.

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